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Pot shop interest blooms in De Beque

De Beque town officials have received one completed application for a recreational marijuana business and have seen interest in annexations to the town, officials said.

“It’s kind of what we expected,” Town Manager Guy Patterson said. “We knew one or two people might be ready to go” once the town opened the application process on Aug. 1.

Most early interest was expected to be in land that could be annexed to the town, which this spring approved recreational marijuana sales by a four-vote margin, and Patterson said the process seems to be playing out that way.

De Beque has few buildings that could accommodate marijuana-related businesses but, “we do have a lot of land that falls into” that category, Patterson said. “The big interest we have is in land.”

Patterson had noted previously that De Beque offers not only a large amount of land that might qualify for growing marijuana, it also is on a main route to municipalities such as Denver, which also have approved sales of recreational marijuana.

Prospective business owners who settle on land outside the town limits will have to seek annexation before they can embark on the process of obtaining permits for marijuana-related businesses.

The permits themselves will cost $3,000 and the fees are non-refundable. In addition, separate permits are needed for different phases of the industry. For instance, a business planning to sell marijuana retail as well as grow its own crops would have to obtain separate $3,000 permits for the retail and grow portions.

De Beque has no plans to limit the number of permits it issues, preferring to leave that to the market.